On June 25, 2020 the University of Bremen hosted a workshop about using the “Orbis” database for scientific purposes. The workshop addressed PhD students of the Diginomics Group and the Faculty of Business Studies and Economics (Faculty 7) in general. It was initiated by Uwe Staroske (SuUB) together with Jutta Günther (Faculty 7) and organized by Matheus Eduardo Leusin and Philipp Tobias Hohn, PhD candidates of the Diginomics Group. About 30 persons took part in the online workshop.

Orbis is a product of the Bureau van Dijk (BvD) and contains data from over 360 million companies around the world, including a variety of information such as business activity, performance, corporate structure, ownership and financial information, M&A etc. The “Orbis” database was acquired recently by the University Library (SuUB) through a joint effort from the Faculty of Business Studies and Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, and the SuUB. It is available for all members of the University of Bremen.

Matthias Müller, database expert, and Santhosh Metri, IT specialist, from BvD introduced into the use of the database and focused on the presentation of “Orbis IP” (Intellectual Property). “Orbis IP” links global patent data to companies and corporate groups, offering a variety of related data, such as legal changes in ownership of patents, potential values, technical quality evaluations, etc. The workshop participants discussed future possibilities of reserach using this further development of intellectual property information in “Orbis”. The organisers of the workshop will keep the participants informed about future developments.

Contact: Matheus Eduardo Leusin